San Antonio College Library

Biography of the seminal French filmmaker who influenced New Wave cinema.

Unevenly respected, easily hated, almost always suspected of being inferior to his reputation, Jean Cocteau has often been thought of as a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. In this landmark biography, Claude Arnaud thoroughly contests this characterization, as he celebrates Cocteau's "fragile genius--a combination almost unlivable in art" but in his case so fertile. Arnaud narrates the life of this legendary French novelist, poet, playwright, director,...

Jean Cocteau was a very versatile 20th century artist. Author of "Les Enfants Terribles," and "la Belle et la Bête," he was one of the most influential French writers of the 1920s and the 1930s. His large body of work includes poetry, novels, works for theater and films, paintings, opera and dance, and journalistic criticism. He was criticized by the surrealists to whom he was compared. He struggled with religion, opium addiction and was openly...

An appreciation of what the artist is seeking to do in his art. 113 reproductions are included.

"The tone is one of constant movement from the most ordinary to the most abstruse. There are 14 conversations with 'le Patron,' some in 1969, some in 1975, and several more with co-workers in various fields. ... In Mr. Bringuier's book, in a pleasant informal way, we see a sophisticated non-scientist exploring Piaget's domain with the master. Some of Piaget's best-known findings about children as explained along the way, but Mr. Bringuier has ways...